So, to clarify:
In music there are notes. Multiple notes combined form a chord which serves in conveying certain emotions (like sadness for minor chords). Multiple chords form a sequence that conveys a sense of movement.
I am aware that most songs repeat their chord sequences (like four chord songs).
My question is: Is there a stylistic tool that utilizes sequences of chord progressions, or is there no ‘higher level’ and it’s merely considered a long string of chords?
In: 7
I don’t exactly understand your question, but it sounds like you are asking about the relationship between chord progressions and music styles (is this what you meant by “higher level”? If so, I think the answer would be yes, in a general sense. For example, the ll-V-I “sequence” is a very common chord progression in Jazz. The I-IV-V sequence is often regarded as more “romantic”.
There’s [Schenkerian Analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenkerian_analysis), mainly used on European classical music, which among other things traces the large scale chord and melodic patterns of a piece by reducing them to more abstract and abstract levels, ultimately ending at the [Fundamental structure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_structure)—or *Ursatz* in German—where every piece basically follows a I-V-I chord pattern at its deepest level accompanied by a 3-2-1 melody. Or so the theory claims.
You might compare it to one of those screenwriting manuals which try and find deeper structural patterns in film stories at various levels, which at the most abstract, simple level might be something like: “1 – An initial situation; 2 – A conflict appears; 3 – The conflict is resolved.”
There’s [Schenkerian Analysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenkerian_analysis), mainly used on European classical music, which among other things traces the large scale chord and melodic patterns of a piece by reducing them to more abstract and abstract levels, ultimately ending at the [Fundamental structure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_structure)—or *Ursatz* in German—where every piece basically follows a I-V-I chord pattern at its deepest level accompanied by a 3-2-1 melody. Or so the theory claims.
You might compare it to one of those screenwriting manuals which try and find deeper structural patterns in film stories at various levels, which at the most abstract, simple level might be something like: “1 – An initial situation; 2 – A conflict appears; 3 – The conflict is resolved.”
I don’t exactly understand your question, but it sounds like you are asking about the relationship between chord progressions and music styles (is this what you meant by “higher level”? If so, I think the answer would be yes, in a general sense. For example, the ll-V-I “sequence” is a very common chord progression in Jazz. The I-IV-V sequence is often regarded as more “romantic”.
Yes, there is the mode:
The group of chords you’re familiar with, such as major and minor chords, all include a subset of the possible notes. If you play them as a scale you’ll notice they have the same sequence of steps between (e.g. WWHWWWH) but what if we were to use a different set of steps? We would be in a different mode.
In Western music these are the same sequence but shifted/rotated. Music used to defer to a different mode than the one commonly used now!
Yes, there is the mode:
The group of chords you’re familiar with, such as major and minor chords, all include a subset of the possible notes. If you play them as a scale you’ll notice they have the same sequence of steps between (e.g. WWHWWWH) but what if we were to use a different set of steps? We would be in a different mode.
In Western music these are the same sequence but shifted/rotated. Music used to defer to a different mode than the one commonly used now!
There’s „form“, which in popular music is what determines whether you have a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure or something like verse-verse-Bridge-chorus-verse-chorus, or 12 bar blues vs 16 bar blues.
In classical music there are things like concerto form, symphonic form and ternary form.
There’s „form“, which in popular music is what determines whether you have a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure or something like verse-verse-Bridge-chorus-verse-chorus, or 12 bar blues vs 16 bar blues.
In classical music there are things like concerto form, symphonic form and ternary form.
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